U.S. to indict North Koreans over WannaCry, Sony cyber attacks

FILE PHOTO: A screenshot shows a WannaCry ransomware demand, provided by cyber security firm Symantec, in Mountain View, California, U.S. May 15, 2017. Courtesy of Symantec/Handout via REUTERS

By Christopher Bing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department is poised to charge North Korean hackers over the 2017 global WannaCry ransomware attack and the 2014 cyber attack on Sony Corp, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.

The charges, part of a strategy by the U.S. government to deter future cyber attacks by naming and shaming the alleged perpetrators, will also allege that the North Korean hackers broke into the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016, according to the official.

In 2014, U.S. officials said unnamed North Korean hackers were responsible for a major cyber intrusion into Sony, which resulted in leaked internal documents and data being destroyed.

The attacks came after Pyongyang sent a letter to the United Nations, demanding that Sony not move forward with a movie comedy that portrayed the U.S.-backed assassination of a character made to look like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The FBI said at the time it had recovered evidence connecting North Korea to the attack and others in South Korea.

Last year, the WannaCry ransomware attack affected thousands of businesses across the globe through a computer virus that encrypted files on affected systems, including Britain’s National Health Service, where nonfunctional computer systems forced the cancellation of thousands of appointments.

(Reporting by Christopher Bing; Additional writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Film Created By Homeschoolers Coming To Theaters

A family-friendly movie created by largely Christian homeschoolers is going to be released in theaters on April 6th.

The movie, “Beyond The Mask”, is a historical thriller revolving around the Revolutionary War.  An assassin for the British East India Company seeks to redeem his life by stopping a plot against the American colonies.  Through the process, he discovers faith in Christ.

The movie stars Andrew Chaney, Kara Killmer (Chicago Fire) and veteran British actor John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings).  Rhys-Davies said he was very impressed with the 400 homeschooled students who created the film.

“I sort of like mavericks who challenge the Hollywood studio system,” he explained. “There are many subcultures in the U.S., and they always defy my expectations, and I welcome homeschoolers. I find them keen and enthusiastic, with a moral code and impressive integrity. I really liked working with them—and they made a jolly good romp of a film.”

The film’s director, Chad Burns, told The Christian Post the movie will be a quality Christian film.

“We live in a Facebook culture that is obsessed with identity—with every post and every Tweet,” he said. “People build these elaborate masks. People want to be seen as a successful student or a successful magazine editor or a successful mother—whatever the category. Jesus said that unless we’re finding our identity in Him, unless we’re resting in His finished work, we’re never going to find that satisfaction and fulfillment we’re looking for.”

John Hagee’s “Four Blood Moons” To Become Movie

A docu-drama based on the best seller Four Blood Moons is being produced to hit theaters by March.

The book and now movie will show how that “Scripture, science and history tie together.”  The movie will be in theaters for one night only, March 23, between a total solar eclipse and a total lunar eclipse.

“The heavens are ‘God’s billboard.’ He’s been sending signals to Earth, and we haven’t been picking them up,” Hagee is quoted as saying in a press release on the new movie. “Two blood moons, in 2014 and 2015, point to dramatic events in the Middle East and, as a result, changes in the whole world.”

Hagee notes that four consecutive lunar eclipses have fallen on Passover and Sukkot only three times in the last 500 years.

A press release for the film states:

“”Four Blood Moons” combines scripture, science, history and big-screen live action spanning centuries, including previous similar lunar occurrences and the earth-shaking changes around them. It also examines our four blood-moon cycle-and its possible meaning for Israel, the Middle East and the world.

An array of historians, religious scholars and commentators appear in “Four Blood Moons” and offer their insight-filmmaker, speaker and author Dinesh D’Souza; radio host and author Dennis Prager; and noted author and historian David Barton to name just a few.”

The previous instances of consecutive eclipses on Jewish holy days have happened the same time as the founding of Israel in 1948-49 and Jerusalem rejoining the state of Israel.

Pro-Life Groups Call On PBS To Pull Pro-Abortion Movie

A Catholic pro-life organization is actively campaigning for PBS to drop their plans to air the pro-abortion movie “After Tiller.”

The American Life League called upon PBS to pull the movie which is scheduled to air on Labor Day.  The group says that because PBS is “publicly funded” is “has no business” airing a slanted, pro-abortion film.

“Why are pro-life tax dollars being used to paint a sympathetic picture of abortionists who stab babies in the base of their skulls just moments before they are born?” said ALL President Judie Brown.  “Where is the sympathy for the babies, whose brains are being sucked out by vacuum machines by these abortionists?”

PBS says they will air the movie as part of their “Point of View” series that has been running for 27 seasons.

“‘After Tiller’ follows these four doctors as they confront a host of obstacles — from moral and personal dilemmas to restrictions placed on their practices by state legislation,” stated PBS in a press release.  “Rather than trying to take a comprehensive look at the heated political debate surrounding abortion, the film weaves together revealing, in-depth interviews with the abortionists and intimate vérité scenes both from their lives outside their clinics and the time they spend in their clinics, counseling and caring for their anxious, vulnerable patients at profoundly important crossroads in their lives.”

Pro-life groups around the world have shown the “After Tiller” film to be slanted in favor of abortion.

Gosnell Movie Fully Funded

The movie that pro-abortionists and Hollywood didn’t want you to do is going to be made.

The filmmakers behind the movie Gosnell: The Doctor Is Sin announced they have passed their $2.1 million funding goal on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, meaning that the movie is a go.

The movie is now the most successful project to ever be funded on Indiegogo.

The filmmakers said the movie will contain an examination of the media’s blackout on the trial of America’s most notorious serial killer.  One of the filmmakers who attended one of the trial days says that only three journalists were in attendance, compared to dozens who attended trials such as Arizona murderer Jodi Arias.

Filmmakers admit the movie, which is planned as being a TV movie, might have a very hard time finding a network willing to run it because anti-life activists will want to try and make sure the public cannot see the reality of abortion.

Gosnell Film Fundraising Hitting Home Stretch

A group of filmmakers attempting to raise $2.1 million on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo for a movie about abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell say they are about $700,000 short with 16 days to go in the campaign.

The original fundraising was planned for the more well-known Kickstarter site until it was removed because Kickstarter objected to the anti-abortion content of the film.

The filmmakers say it’s important to get the film made because Hollywood is doing all it can to ignore the truth of situations like the House of Horrors in West Philadelphia where convicted murderer Gosnell killed thousands of babies.

“Thousands of people died in Philadelphia,” filmmaker Ann McElhinney told the Christian Post.  “Those people were born alive and were viable; and they struggled for life and died a painful death, and they shouldn’t be forgotten.”

The filmmakers say that they’ve spoken to thousands of people about the film and they have no idea who Gosnell is because the major media outlets provided very little coverage of his murder trial.